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So far Love and Recovery has created 47 blog entries.
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27 12, 2017

Faith Is For The Courageous

2020-11-11T15:25:44-08:00December 27th, 2017|Faith, Fear|0 Comments

    Get ready for it. Here it comes. Hold your seats! The "F" bomb You know the word. You know what word I'm talking about. The sneaky little bastard that creeps into our mind at all hours of the day only to disrupt and cause anxiety. FEAR If you want to know the truth, I believe fear may be worse than f*ck. I mean seriously, fear is some effed up stuff. Fear can paralyze people. Fear stops us dead in our tracks from following our hearts desire. Fear traps us in darkness. Fear accelerates like wildfire if we give it an ounce of oxygen. Fear debilitates. Fear isolates. Fear suffocates. Even though fear is completely senseless, it lives in the mind. It protects the ego. The ego that tells us to worry about what others think. Fear is resistance to being the best and most beautiful being we can [...]

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15 12, 2017

Finding Freedom Through Faith

2020-11-11T15:25:44-08:00December 15th, 2017|Faith|0 Comments

  I have traveled more in the month of December than I can remember traveling in the last five years. It's been invigorating and fun to let loose and see the world a bit. In my final spiral of alcoholism, I was traveling nonstop with a toxic boyfriend. I literally lived out of a suitcase and always had my dog carrier on wheels to bring my pup, Blossom, with me. She sure put up with a lot from me during that dark and desolate downward demise of my physical and spiritual being. I am thrilled that my boyfriend at the time finally dumped me. It was a blessing. I wasn't going to leave him. I just couldn't. I was as addicted to the false love we had as I was to the drink. And so he dumped me. And I had a chance to get sober. It took a while, [...]

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12 12, 2017

Gifting with Intention

2020-11-11T15:25:44-08:00December 12th, 2017|Finding Me, Holiday, Showing Up|0 Comments

  With Christmas around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about gift ideas. Gifting with intention keeps coming up for me. I want to give meaningful gifts to the people I love. Honestly, I haven’t much been into the holidays for the past several years. It really feels like a lot of work and effort. And it still does to a degree. The bah humbugs have besieged me for a few years. But my recent visit to New York City sparked a little holiday joy within me. There is something so magical about the big apple at Christmas time, and it really was just what I needed to reignite the spirit within me. As I am writing this savoring a hot cup of coffee with extra cream and my dog snuggled up next to me, I realize that the holidays had become too harried and frantic for me. In [...]

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8 12, 2017

Believe

2020-11-11T15:25:44-08:00December 8th, 2017|Faith, Holiday, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

  Believe It's the first weekend of December and I am just returning from a blessed trip to New York City. The city is magical in December. The Big Apple most definitely knows how to go big for the holiday season. While in the city my friend and I took in lots of experiences. We came to New York under the guise of attending a personal development seminar. And, really it was just a great excuse to escape the humdrum life of sunny Southern California, almost always 74 degrees and beautiful. The mere thought of New York City gets my blood flowing. It's exciting. It's gritty and alive. It's a myriad of cultures piled high into the towering buildings. It's rich with all the great things this land has to offer as well as humbled by the homelessness that haunted me at every turn. Christmas in the city is brilliant [...]

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19 11, 2017

What If The Possibilities are Endless?

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 19th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Faith, Fear, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery, Showing Up, Vulnerability in Sobriety|0 Comments

What If? Do you ever get stuck in fear, afraid to make a decision? Do you find yourself full of the what-ifs?   What if it doesn’t work out? What if it’s the wrong color? What if I don’t succeed? What if I don’t like it after I buy it? What if I don’t want to go after I purchase the ticket? What if it’s raining that night? What if I don’t like the new people I will work with?   I don’t really suffer from the “what if’s” too often. I am decisive, and I generally go with my intuition whether the subject-in-question is big or small.   But I do hear a lot of people debating decisions…mulling them over, overthinking, and so on. And that’s their process. It’s just not a process I can deal with. I make decisions and move on. In most cases. ?   Dating [...]

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17 11, 2017

Joy Peace Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 17th, 2017|Finding Me, Holiday, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

What excites you?   I was starting to write this little piece, and I was thinking what are the things that really get me giddy with excitement. I think I already used the “excited as a kid at Christmas” analogy. So, I ponder, “What excites me?”   About four times per year, I go on a jewelry run for my business, Beach Beauty Bar. There is a gal named Lily who makes the most magnificent baubles you have ever draped around your dainty little neck.   Okay, so yes, Lily’s jewelry excites the shit out of me. Lily is like my drug dealer and I am a total junkie. I am jonesing for the goods. Seriously jonesing for the crack that Lily is peddling.   We never speak by phone. All communication is done via text message. And, she always tells me to bring my own baggies to transport my [...]

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15 11, 2017

Joyful Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 15th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Faith, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

  I spritzed myself with my favorite perfume on my way out the door this morning. I stopped in at the local surf shot to grab a cup of brew and listen to tales of surfing from the local guys. I absolutely love that I get to stop in at a surf shop. It’s so different yet similar to Arizona where the hunters stop in at the gas station for coffee before heading out for a hunt. I love being a part of the local scene that is so nostalgically Huntington Beach. I savor this feeling that the beach is a part of me now, just like the mountains and pine trees will forever be a part of my heart. I’m sporting a new outfit, and I am feeling good… confident.  There’s something about a new outfit that inspires me take a little more time in getting ready. You know, [...]

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14 11, 2017

Rituals to Enhance Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 14th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Joyful Recovery, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

  I sashayed down Main Street feeling like Carrie Bradshaw from Sex in the City. Grinning, I looked people in the eye and said hello. I chatted with strangers as they stopped to pet my French bulldog, Stitch, and he was happy to oblige them. I have often compared downtown Huntington Beach to Beaver Cleaver land, where everyone knows you and your dog’s name, and where the neighbors are friendly and chit chat in their front yards about local happenings. It’s more than congenial.  It’s jovial. And, tonight on this warm November evening, Stitch and I strolled down to the weekly Tuesday night street fair and farmers market. It’s within walking distance from our house, and it’s always fun to run into friends along the way. Our walks to the street fair are always pleasant, but tonight seemed different. It seemed magical. I felt like I had stepped right onto [...]

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13 11, 2017

Permission To Be Me

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 13th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Finding Me, Recovery Stories, Vulnerability in Sobriety|1 Comment

  Remember in grade school when we had to bring a permission slip from our parents to do certain things? We had to have permission to go on a field trip. We had to ask permission to stay the night at a friend's house. We are trained from childhood that we need permission to do almost everything. Permission is ingrained in us from childhood. When we were toddlers, we acted out of instinct…we just did what we wanted. And, then we slowly got conditioned to look to others for permission. Now believe me, I know it’s for the safety of children that they must seek permission. As we enter grade school, permission takes on a whole new level and meaning. We are now interacting with other children, and we seek permission in other ways. We gage how kids respond to us and adjust our behavior accordingly. I believe I was [...]

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12 11, 2017

Vulnerability in Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 12th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Finding Me, Vulnerability in Sobriety|0 Comments

  I just love Lady Gaga, and as I was driving down Pacific Coast Highway this morning, she came on the radio. I blasted it loud “P p p poker face, p p p poker face!” I seriously love pumping up the tunes in my car and singing at the top of my lungs. I lived the first 43 years of my life with a poker face. Now, it was a face that my cousin likes to call “Little Miss Sunshine.” It didn’t matter what was happening in my life, I was always smiling and saying everything was “just fine.” It was my poker face. It was a survival skill I learned at a young age and it served me well for many years. In the last few years, have slowly been unmasking my poker face and tapping into something really effing scary. VULNERABILITY. Being vulnerable is similar to being [...]

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